Gameplay begins with all the frogs lined up at one point. The teacher announces that Spring has arrived and the travelling Frogs may “GO!” Like most games with a tag format, the point is essentially to avoid being tagged by the “Dangers” while dashing to the finish line. The monitors must
ensure that all Frogs play fair and ‘die’ (move to the sidelines) once tagged. Captured frogs must stay there until the game finishes. Play begins and continues until all the frogs have either reached the designated wetland or been tagged. At this point, the Danger who has captured the most frogs might receive special recognition for being the fiercest or fastest of enemies. Words of commiseration are offered to those frogs who have fallen and praise is awarded to those who have reached the forest, pond or meadow.
Reflections:
• As you can imagine, these two distinct games can easily be reconfigured to represent other natural scenarios. For my own classes, I’ve used the basic structure of ‘prescribed movements towards a goal’ to model the challenges con- fronting pollinators trying to gather food from a blossoming
meadow or sprouting seeds trying to grow in a garden. During inclement weather, this kind of game can be adapted for use indoors (substitute steps for leaps, use symbolic checks on a blackboard or screen, or even use counters on a board to represent each team’s progress). The ‘tag’ format, with modifications, works beautifully in bird migra-
tion games, as described by Lingelbach and Purcell in “Migration Obstacle Course” (p. 144), yet is obviously well suited for any predator-prey or creature-danger dynamic. Project Wild’s “Quick Frozen Critters” (pp. 122-123) adds some interesting complexities to the basic game premise, including a requirement for players to gather food tokens as they try to reach the goal. Once
children are accustomed to playing games with these gen- eral structures, they can easily invent their own versions. Students can share and viscerally reflect on research that they’ve done by transforming their findings into event cards for ‘prescribed movements towards a goal’ activities or perhaps complex variations of tag.
• By challenging young people to create and dramatize real-life dilemmas and conflicts in a game, we give them the occasion to vividly empathize with the lives of other
Additional Cards for Older Students
Big Trouble: When you were a tadpole growing up, excess nitro- gen fertilizer running off from carelessly treated farms, a nearby golf course and suburban lawns led to an increase in the quantity of algae in your pond. Because of the extra algae, more large snails came to live in your pond and feast on these small green plants. Some of the snails were carrying parasitic trematode larvae. The parasitic larvae infected you! Because your immune system was already stressed from various toxic pesticides that had also drained into the water, your immune system couldn’t fight off the trematodes very well. They invaded your leg bud and caused so much damage that you were only able to grow one hind leg instead of two. – back 4 hops slowly
Big Trouble: You’ve been exposed to the very deadly chytrid fungus. It was accidentally brought to the continent when non- native clawed toads (being kept for pharmaceutical research and as pets) were released into the wild. These toads are somewhat immune to the fungus, but most native amphibians (like you) are not. Luckily you have some helpful bacteria, called Janthinobacterium lividum, living on your skin. They will help you to fight the fungus, but even so you’re somewhat weakened. – back 3 hops
Big Trouble: You are easily tired because you received too much UVB radiation as a little egg in the pond. This happened, in part, because human-made chemicals such as CFCs thinned the ozone layer of the atmosphere. (This is the layer that usually filters out a lot of the damaging UVB rays in sunlight.) On the bright side—a poor choice of words—at least you survived; many of your siblings never even made it to the tadpole stage! – back 5 hops
Big Trouble: Herbicides (such as atrazine) used in industrial agriculture contaminated the water where you were living when you were a tadpole. The hormone levels in your body have been disrupted and now that you’re a grown up frog, you have both male and female characteristics. You may not be able to repro- duce even if you make it to the pond. – back 6 hops
Big Trouble: Run-off from chlorothalonil, a fungicide used in indus- trial agriculture, entered the wetland where you were living as a tad- pole. While most of your brothers and sisters died from contact with this fungicide, you survived in a weakened condition. – back 3 hops
Big Trouble: a card for older students: Estrogen-mimicking chemi- cals from inadequately treated city and suburban wastewater have washed into the water where you are living. This has affected your development in a very negative way. - back 4 hops!
Page 14 GREEN TEACHER 93
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